Tuesday, July 20, 2010

GAO Consults ROA on TRS

ROA was interviewed July 16 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on a congressionally mandated study analyzing TRICARE Reserve Select’s (TRS) acceptance in the Guard and Reserve community.

CAPT Marshall Hanson, ROA legislative director spent 40 minutes talking with two GAO representative on how to improve the program. He pointed out that while www.TRICARE.mil provides a lot of information about the various health care programs, Selected Reservists have to seek out the information. Information about TRS isn’t necessarily being disseminated on the drill floor, so many Guard and Reserve members are unaware of their benefits and how to get their doctors to accept TRICARE. CAPT Hanson also brought up how TRICARE for Gray Area Retirees is not being implemented in a timely fashion.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Someone needs to get off their 5th point of contact and get TriCare for gray area retirees up and running. It was supposed to be fielded 1 Oct, yet here we are, almost a year later, and nothing. That's the main thing keeping me in the active reserves, because there is no TriCare program for gray area retirees. My fun meter has been pegged as a member of the USAFR, and I want to pull chocks and get the hell out, but without TriCare as a gray area retiree, I'm forced to stay in, if anything, for TriCare Reserve Select family coverage.

I am enrolled in TRS in Puerto Rico and I am very satisfied. We cancelled the previous plan with my wife employer. Under that plan we paid $600.00 a month. Now we pay $198.00. The only problem I see is that the web page with information is not user friendly and initially we had a hard time finding providers because the info is dispersed. Finally we found one that has everything we need near our home.

Apparently Federal employees can not take TRS - if they are on FEHBP. So that make 31.2% of the Reservists not eligible for TRS by way of Federal employer. Other government employees may have similar restrictions.

TRR was originally supposed to be up and running on 1 JUNE as mandated by Congress. TRICARE Management Authority(TMA) requested an extention to 1 OCT and that looks to be slipping as well. This is inconceivable considering almost everyone who is participating in TRS will go to TRR!!!I just retired after 30 years and joined TRS since it was started 5-6 years ago. I could have gone right into TRR if it was up and operating as originally planned. I have been told that I am "not eligible" for CHCBP(COBRA) even though their website(Humana that runs/contracts for Federal Healthnet) states I am.... because they have a unwritten "policy" that someone like me(former SELRES) has to have done 30continuous days of active duty within the last 18 months to get COBRA! Everyone knows this would put a SELRES on AD and on TRICARE STANDARD too. TRS is federal health insurance offered by the government and is subject to the same federal law as all health insurers and most offer COBRA. They can't make a "policy" that circumvents federal law!!! How is that looking out for your people???? I am disgusted.

Reservists are disenrolled from TRS every time we do a stint of active duty and have to manually re-enroll. I'm considering dropping TRS for a more expensive civilian plan to avoid the possibility of not being covered at all because I forgot to sign-up after one of my active-duty periods. Additionally, thanks to the not-so-helpful and very poorly informed personnel running a complicated process, and its typically a few hours of work for me each time.

To the last anon post: Thank you. ROA will send your comment to GAO which is doing a study on TRS use by Reservists. When ROA meets with legislative and policy makers in Washington D.C. we have always expressed concerned over the reenrollment hassles facing Reservists as the shift between types of TRICARE coverage.

WOW! That was fast... no sooner did ROA forward the last anon comment to the GAO, they responded: "Thanks! This will definitely be in our report." Proof positive that YOU have direct access to affect change through ROA.